Battle Report: Defend The Brew!

Lately I've been jonesing for a Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish, and in the name of expedience, decided to play a game with basic profiles from the book. This is something I rarely do outside of teaching games, since the warband calculator is so damn fun. The narrative I had chosen, though leant itself toward something basic.

You see, a dwarven community with a fantastic brewery had caught the attention of a band of hobgoblin raiders. A frosty dwarven brew would be just the thing to quench their thrist after a long day of pillaging and warfare! While the brewers and craftsmen locked themselves behind sturdy dwarf doors, a small band of dwarf heroes prepared to defend the town.

The Attackers:

Hobgoblin Heavy Infantry Leader and 2 Bugbear Warriors

3 Hobgoblin Warriors and 2 Hobgoblin Archers (Crossbowmen)

The Defenders:

Dwarf Orcslayer, Dwarf Commander, Dwarf Dragonslayer, Dwarf Elite Crossbowman and 2 Dwarf Warriors

The attackers were 3 points over the 300 point limit, and the defenders were from a previously made list, putting them at a slight disadvantage because the Orc and Dragon slayers would be paying for abilities they wouldn't be using. To that end, I chose to swap the Dragonslayer's Lethal to Big creatures for this game.

The two forces set up ready to do battle, the dwarves seeking to use buildings to anchor their line, while the hobgoblins seek to gain some high ground.

The hobgoblins gain the initiative, sending the bugbears out to soften up the dwarves as the archers take the hill. The dwarves react by sending the Dragonslayer out to meet the bugbears head on and taking cover behind a building, trusting her combat skills to wreak havoc while making the goblinoids come to them.

The tactic pays off, as the Dragonslayer fells a bugbear in a single blow. The Orcslayer rushes out to assist and gets smashed in the face for his troubles, stunning him.

Taking back the initiative, the bugbear smashes the stunned Orcslayer into the dirt while the hobgoblin line advances. The archers rain a few ineffectual arrows down on the dwarves, the sturdy dwarf mail easily turning their jagged points.

Screaming oaths of vengeance, the Dragonslayer launches herself at the last bugbear and severs its head cleanly in a single stroke. The horrific display breaks the hobgoblin line, punching a hole for the dwarf warriors to rush the leader. They quickly hack him to pieces, sending the hobgoblins literally running for the hills.

At last the dwarven brew was safe. Songs were sung of the Orcslayer's brave exploits and the heroes enjoyed copious amounts of the finest ale for leagues around. All on the house of course!

Courage In The Face Of Demons

I haven't posted in a while, and I have been feeling remiss. This is partly because I have been lazy, and partly because we acquired a new puppy. Meet Macon:

Hi.

So with a little free time today, I decided to play a quick game of Song of Blades and Heroes, documenting it for posterity. It is a classic tale of good versus evil, where stout men fend off the forces of Hell itself.

On the good side, we have the brave warriors of Gondor (or a Gondor-like equivalent). Lead by the brave Not-Boromir, these warriors have a tough road ahead of them.

This is an extremely basic warband, straight out of the rulebook. It consists of a Human Leader, 3 Human Warriors and 3 Human Elite Archers. Simple but organized and effective.

The vile forces of evil are a strike force of Fiends straight out of the depths of Hell. What is their purpose in the lands of men? Only darker powers know...

The Devils are a custom warband and consist of:

Major Fiend Commander Q3+ C4 Big, Evil, Flying, Leader, Shooter: Short
Bearded Devil Q3+ C4 Evil, Poison
2 Hell Hounds Q3+ C3 Animal, Evil, Long Move, Shooter: Short
2 Bladeling Mercenaries Q4+ C3 Evil, Savage

A paladin would have a field day with these gentlemen, but luckily there isn't one around to spoil their fun.

The scene for the battle is around the ruins of a skull-faced tower surrounded by trees in a dark forest.

Taking opposite sides of the field, Not-Boromir sends his archers to take the high ground, while his warriors move to close off the gap in the crumbling walls.

The Devils respond by moving around the tower, sheltering themselves from any stray arrows.

The hell hounds use their speed to break off and harass the archers...

While the warriors seal off the gap as the Fiends close in.

One of the hell hounds pays for its boldness with its life while the warriors surge through the gap to slay one of the bladelings and deal the bearded devil a stunning blow.

The remaining hell hound flees the archers and rushes join the fray near the tower as the major devil moves in to tilt the odds towards the forces of Hell.

With a powerful blow, the major devil smashes the warrior into a thin, red paste inside his armor...

The sight of which proves too much for Not-Boromir and he flees. 

Flapping his mighty wings, the Devil commander easily catches up and engages the terrified leader.

The archers move down to help the last warrior standing, one of the unleashing an arrow through the gap in the wall to fell the last hell hound.

The victory is short lived, however, as the major devil smashes Not-Boromir into the dirt with an audible crack of bones and armor. The humans scatter, losing heart at the horrible sight.

Rallying, the archers regroup, sending a hail of arrows at the major devil and driving him into the trees.

In a fit of rage, the fiend launches himself at the archers, hurling a fireball which barely misses one of them.

Blinded by his rage, the major devil ignores the archer to his left. This becomes a fatal mistake as the archer puts an arrow behind his ear, felling the beast in a crash of roars, blood and dust. The last bladeling flees and is cut down while the bearded devil makes for the trees, living to fight another day.

With the forces of evil vanquished, the human soldiers return home to honor their dead with ale and song. Huzzah!

So, there we have it. I must say I really enjoy playing the Gondorian warband. Human Elite Archers rock, even more so with good leadership. It is basic but it really, really works.

The Devils I have not had so much luck with. This is their second battle and they are currently 0 for 2. I will need more practice with them. I will need to work on not over-extending the Hell Hounds. Leader may not be the best choice for the Major Devil. His size makes him an easy target and also means he needs to get stuck in to work his best, which is a dangerous gamble for a leader.

And that's my battle report. Hope you enjoyed the show and happy gaming!

The Lich King of Tir Norak

All right, time for another dungeon crawl! It's been a while since I've had time to work on my 3D dungeon and I've been itching to do some more playtesting on my solo dungeon crawl rules. So this time, instead of busting out a pile of half painted plaster-resin, I decided to use some of the stacks of D&D Dungeon Tiles I have lying around.

Behold its 2D mystery!

My SDC rules are a mix of Song of Blades and Heroes and its companion dungeon rules, Song of Gold and Darkness, plus a bunch of custom rules to populate the dungeon. Someday I may actually write some of them down, but for now they mostly occupy my head and a few tables in some spreadsheets. The biggest thing I need to playtest are the rules for scenic items (which sadly don't pop up much in this report; yay random tables!).

I had been working with a campaign system, but after some imbalances and a total wipeout of the party after my last (unrecorded) adventure, I decided to start anew and focus on the basics. I whipped up my party from the pre-experience days and threw them back in the dungeon fresh. And here are the heroes!

Our brave adventurers have learned that the tomb of the Lich King of Tir Norak has been uncovered by some bandits. While the lich has not been seen, the promise of riches has been drawing evil things to the tomb, and it is only a matter of time before he has been woken from his slumber. The brave heroes sally forth to destroy the lich before he can be awakened!

The heroes find themselves at the door to the tomb. The thief detects a trap rigged to the door, a needle laced with deadly poison. He is able to disarm it, but the trap foretells trouble ahead.

What luck! Behind the door lies a chest! From the scuff marks on the floor, it appears to have been dragged from deeper in the dungeon and left here. Hopefully its owners don't come looking for it soon. The chest is quickly unlocked and 400 gold is found inside!

The heroes move down the hallway, but are soon alerted to the shuffling feet and coarse laughs of a troop of bugbears! There are howls of rage and it soon becomes clear who had left the chest.

The heroes rush down the hall to meet them, and the elf wizard manages to enchant the bugbears, freezing them in their tracks. One shakes off the spell and deals the thief a stunning blow.

Short work is made of the frozen bugbears, but the free one leaps past its fallen comrades to press its advantage and slays the thief!

Enraged, the paladin rushes forward, swinging his axe. A burst of magical lights from the elf wizard blinds the beast, letting him be cut down easily. Checking the bodies, the heroes find strange spider tattoos on the necks of the bugbears, possibly slave marks. Saddened by the loss of their friend, they press on and hope there are more traps...

Opening the next door, the heroes see two dark shapes studying the door across the room. Dark elves! A witch and her bodyguard by the looks. They turn and the bodyguard rushes forward to block the elf ranger's path while the witch ensnares the templar warrior with bands of black energy.

The elf ranger quickly fells the dark elf in front of him, leaping forward to engage the witch and clearing a path for the paladin to do the same. Surrounded, the witch is swiftly hacked to pieces. They find 600 gold on the corpses, plus a magic mace that is given to the templar when the spell holding him finally wears off.

Obviously intrigued by the door the dark elves were inspecting, the heroes move forward and open it, ignoring the warning runes etched into it long ago. Behind the door they find a wizardly skeleton on a throne flanked by two statues. Three long-dead bodies lie on the floor. As the heroes enter, the skeleton on the throne rises and shouts an arcane spell, causing the bodies on the floor to rise. Looks like they found the lich!

The crypt guardians shamble forward to engage the heroes while the lich freezes the paladin with a spell. The paladin shakes off the evil enchantment and the heroes press into the room aided by some magical support from their own wizard.

Fearing the banishing power of the templar, the lich weaves a spell around him, enveloping him in magical darkness. The elf ranger smashes a guardian to the ground, opening a pathway to the lich.

The lich is surrounded and immobilized by a spell before being hacked to pieces. The templar shakes off the now weakened spell and uses his holy power to banish the lich's soul, thereby ending his power forever! The heroes loot the room finding 800 gold! Now it is time to hit the tavern for food, wine and possibly find a new thief.

This crawl taught me a couple things. First, my 3D dungeon is nice, but the tiles offer me more variety and space to maneuver in. The 3D dungeon is a little cramped. I won't be switching to tiles exclusively, but I will probably be using them a little more often in the future.

Second, spell-casting enemies need extra support to make them a challenge. The dark elf fight went rather quickly and the witch wasn't much of a threat with only one bodyguard. Meanwhile, I added an extra guardian to the lich fight and that felt like a real fight. The lich wasn't too tough to handle, but I felt like a wrong roll with all that magic flying around could make things go badly very quickly. I'm going to have to re-jig my encounter tables a little in the future.

So that's it for this quest. Happy adventuring!

Into The Deep Dark...

Recently I have been fiddling around with using Song of Blades and Heroes to create a good solo dungeon crawl system that fits my needs. I own a copy of Song of Gold and Darkness, but have found it too focused on two players. There are a lot of great ideas in it though, so with that along with Song of Deeds and Glory (for campaign/experience rules) and a generous helping of homebrew, I started my first real playtest dungeon:

The layout above is a testament to both the awesomeness of Dungeonstone's advanced set and my monumental laziness. I've had the set since March and it only has 3 colors. You'd think I'd be done by now.

Nevertheless, my heroes set off into the dungeon, paladin and rogue in the lead and the dwarf fighter taking up rearguard. Opening the door to the first room, the party is surprised to find a giant wolf guarding a fountain! It leaps forward to attack!

Turns out that fountain has magical properties that sustain the wolf, leading to a tough fight. The rogue is taken out of action almost immediately. Here's hoping there aren't any traps ahead. Eventually the wolf is put down, but there is no treasure to be had here. After the first casualty, the dwarf and elf take the lead to deal with tough fights ahead.

Is this place a kennel? The next room yielded more wolves (hooray for random tables!) tucked behind a patch of poisonous fungus. Also no treasure here either (boo, random tables!).

Luckily, wolves are dumb and charged across the fungus themselves. One is unaffected, but the other ends up with a face full of spores and a coughing fit for its efforts. The wolves go down quicker than the first and everyone makes it through the fungus unharmed, although the paladin had to stop briefly to sneeze a bit.

The door to the next room was locked, but teamwork quickly bashed it open in the absence of the rogue. Behind the door waited a crystal golem commanded by a wizard who was ready for trouble. The heroes could feel that fell magics had been cast here and the ground itself felt cursed.

The golem surged forward, but the elf quickly reduced it to sparkly rubble. An opening found, the dwarf charged in and hacked the now defenseless wizard to pieces. The heroes once again found no treasure to reward their efforts.

Pressing ever onward, the heroes move down the opposite corridor. Suddenly, dark shapes move out of the shadows of the intersection. An ambush! A couple of dark elf warriors led by a witch rush the unsuspecting heroes!

 In a flash of blades, the wizard is laid low! Now with no magical support and a flank attack, things look grim...

 But the paladin has no tolerance for such evil creatures. He quickly smites a warrior, then the witch, letting his comrades mop up the survivor.

The heroes almost make it to the next room before lumbering footsteps and scraping scales echo down the hall. A small (-ish) dragon has heard the battle and come to chow down!

 Dodging a gout of flame, the paladin and dwarf rush in. The paladin stuns the beast, letting the dwarf make short work of it. Who said dragons were dangerous?

 Finally, treasure! One bashed down door later and the group was staring at a huge treasure chest. It was quickly opened to find...10 gold coins. They fought a dragon for this?

 Obviously drawn by the scent of dragon meat (or looking for his now-dead pet), a giant lumbers down the hall. He hurls a couple rocks before getting hacked up and left in the pile that has accumulated in this intersection.

 The final room! The door swings open to reveal a tomb that will surely contain treasures of old. However, first the heroes will have to fight off a Chaos Mage and his bodyguard who have come to loot the tomb as well!

 With blinding speed, the elf ranger leaps forward and cuts down a Chaos warrior while the other villains stare in stunned silence...

 Giving the elf the opportunity to engage the mage himself, though not before the paladin finds himself ensorcelled. As the mage utters the final few words of the spell, the elf gruesomely disembowels him with his blades. The sight causes one bodyguard to panic, letting the dwarf hack him to bits as he tries to flee.

The final bodyguard foolishly holds his ground and is gutted by the elf. The tomb is opened and reveals 100 gold pieces! Finally, some reward! There is also a potion tucked beneath the old bones.

In the aftermath of the quest, the rogue recovers from his wounds, albeit having been looted for his gear while healing. Five gold pieces later he is re-equipped. The wizard is not as lucky and succumbs to his injuries. A new wizard is hired and reveals the potion found in the tomb to be a potion of speed. Healing potions are purchased and distributed to prevent future casualties.

I have learned a couple things from this adventure:

1) Tailor your encounter lists. While it is fun to have randomness, it makes a better story if you have a theme. It also means that you can use more of the figures you want. I ended up using a lot of unpainted figures because I rolled things I haven't gotten to yet. Granted, my dungeon isn't done either, but at least if I had made lists to suit my collection, I could have had more color.

2) The scenic features in  SGD are not necessarily the ones I want to use. I will probably come up with custom rules more suited to what I have on hand and more what I envision in a dungeon setting.

3) I may add at least a little treasure to each non-wandering encounter. Not getting paid for getting stabbed in the face sucks. Not a lot though. Like 1d6 coins or something to represent pocket change.

That's all for now. Maybe on my next trip into the dungeon I'll bring you with me again. *winks*